Naira falls to 225 against dollar
The naira tumbled against the dollar
from 222 on Wednesday to 225 on Thursday, barely 36 hours after the
Central Bank of Nigeria banned importers of rice, textiles, tomato paste
and 38 other items from getting their forex needs from the nation’s
forex market.
The regulator had said the new rule
would help preserve the external reserves, facilitate the resuscitation
of domestic industries and generate employment opportunities.
But the ban, which economists said would
see about $5.7bn quarterly forex demand by importers of the items move
from the official to the parallel market, is already fuelling scarcity
of dollar at the black market and the Bureau De Change segment of the
forex market.
Black
market operators in Lagos, Abuja and Kano told our correspondent on
Thursday that they had limited amount of foreign currencies for sale.
While many claimed that they did not
have dollar for sale, a few who were ready to sell the currency quoted
between N224 and N225 as the selling price.
The Acting President, Association of
Bureau De Change Operators, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said the dollar sold
for between 224 and 225 on the street market because many of the
operators were hoarding their stock of forex in anticipation of further
rise in prices against the naira.
The hoarding, he said, followed the CBN’s new policy banning importers of 40 items from the forex market.
He said, “Most operators at the black
market and a few at the BDC segment are hoarding their stock of forex in
anticipation of further price increase. Most of them believe the CBN’s
new policy will shift a lot of demand to the parallel market and the BDC
segment, a situation that may make the naira to fall. So, rather than
sell what they have, they are hoarding it. It is this artificial
scarcity that is causing the price to rise.
“As of today (Thursday), the United
States dollar is being sold for between N224 and N225. However, pounds
and euro are still at 350 and 249, respectively. They may also rise in
the coming days, while the dollar may sell for N230 by next week.
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